The Daily - The Latest: Bernie Sanders Drops Out

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

Bernie Sanders has suspended his 2020 presidential campaign, marking the end of a quest to the White House that began five years ago. We look at why Sanders is calling his campaign an ideological victory, and how he plans to champion his messages as a senator working with the Democratic Party.“The Latest,” from the team behind “The Daily,” brings you the most important developments on today’s biggest news stories. You can find more information about it here.

Today, at our very first rally, I want to welcome you to a campaign. All of you know we won the popular vote in Iowa. We won the New Hampshire primary. And according to three networks in the AP, we have now won the Nevada caucus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. South Carolina. Former Vice President Joe Biden surged to a strong victory in the South Carolina primary, breathing new life into a stalled presidential bid. The results out of South Carolina effectively reset the race. We're past Super Tuesday, Biden's ahead.

Nobody was expecting that even a week ago. The question is, if you're Bernie Sanders, a traditional candidate would probably say, I'm gone. The math is overwhelming. He's not a traditional candidate. He views himself as the leader of a movement. Which takes me to the state of our presidential campaign. Hey, it's Alex Burns.

In the race for the Democratic nomination for president, it's been clear to Bernie Sanders and his campaign for nearly a month now that he didn't really have a way to overcome Joe Biden. That after he lost Michigan, a state he to overcome Joe Biden, that after he lost Michigan, a state he'd been counting on, there was no realistic path to victory. Biden's delegate lead was too insurmountable, not to mention the fact that campaigning in any traditional sense has been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. And so with the knowledge that he couldn't win the nomination, the question Sanders had been facing is, do you have a better shot at advancing your agenda by staying in the race or by getting out? Good morning, and thank

you very much for joining me. And today we got his answer. I wish I could give you better news, but I think you know the truth. And that is that we are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden, and the path toward victory is virtually impossible. I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful. And so today, I am announcing the suspension of my campaign. In a 15-minute message to his supporters, Sanders said he was dropping out of the race. If I believed that we had a feasible path to nomination, I would certainly continue the campaign. But it's just not there. And listening to this announcement, you get a sense that Sanders is aware of what this moment means for his place in American politics.

He's 78 years old. This will very likely be his last run for the presidency, maybe his last campaign of any kind. be his last run for the presidency, maybe his last campaign of any kind. Over the course of the past five years, our movement has won the ideological struggle. And so he spent some time framing the big picture of his legacy, the issues he brought to the center of democratic politics when he ran for president in 2016 and again in 2020, the minimum wage. A majority of the American people now understand that we must raise the minimum wage. A majority of the American people now understand that we must raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. Medicare for all.

That we must guarantee health care as a right to all of our people. The environment. That we must transform our energy system away from fossil fuel. The cost of college. And that a higher education must be available to all, regardless of income. And although he's dropping out, he claimed a kind of moral victory for what his campaign has been able to accomplish. It was not long ago that people considered these ideas radical and fringe. Today, they are mainstream ideas, and many of them are already being

implemented in cities and states across the country. But the latest, and many of them are already being implemented in cities and states across the country. But the latest and the line that really stuck out to me was when Sanders was making his familiar argument about the problems facing the country today. And because of the unacceptable levels of income and wealth inequality in our economy, many of our friends and neighbors have little or no savings and are desperately trying to pay their rent or their mortgage or even put food on the table. And how he now intends to fix those problems. As a member of the Democratic leadership in the United States Senate

and as a senator from the state of Vermont, this is something that I intend to intensely be involved in over the next number of months. Sanders mentioned his leadership role in the Senate. He hasn't brought that up so much during this campaign because he has preferred to run as an outsider. But it can be easy for people to forget Sanders has been on the inside of government for decades. Yes, he's a Democratic socialist, but he's also spent 30 years on Capitol Hill, mostly working smoothly with the leadership of the Democratic Party. That line and his decision

to withdraw from the race said to me that Sanders is taking a pragmatic approach to the political moment, opting to work inside the system to expand his influence over the Democratic Party and perhaps a future Biden administration, rather than running a symbolic campaign against Biden all the way to the bitter end. It seems clear that Sanders has decided the best way to transform the country, to continue what he calls his political revolution, is to claim that mass movement he's generated and to use it to pressure the party from within. He alluded to this when he told his supporters not to be discouraged by his exit from from within. He alluded to this when he told his supporters

not to be discouraged by his exit from the race. As I hope all of you know, this race has never been about me. I ran for the presidency because I believe that as a president, I could accelerate and institutionalize the progressive changes that we are all building together. And if we keep organizing and fighting, I have no doubt but that that is exactly what will happen. While the path may be slower now, we will change this nation and with like-minded friends around the globe, change the entire world.

Bernie Sanders knows he has an enormously powerful coalition, especially among younger voters. And that coalition can help set the agenda for the Democratic Party for years to come if it operates in a smart way. So for now, that means not fighting Joe Biden directly and instead trying to push him further to the left on the issues Sanders cares about the most. So it's the same ideological mission, but a new approach to pursuing it. And that's the latest from the 2020 race.